"The toughest part of the war was lack of sleep"

Coupled with the lack of shelter or water and a very poor diet, Australian and New Zealand soldiers on
Gallipoli found the lack of sleep almost impossible to get used to. The cramped
conditions, noise, heat and flies made a good night’s rest a rare luxury. Men
often fell asleep where they were sitting – or standing, as New Zealand veteran
Jerry Duffel recalls in this radio interview recorded in the 1960s.

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"The toughest part of the war was lack of sleep"

Coupled with the lack of shelter or water and a very poor diet, Australian and New Zealand soldiers on
Gallipoli found the lack of sleep almost impossible to get used to. The cramped
conditions, noise, heat and flies made a good night’s rest a rare luxury. Men
often fell asleep where they were sitting – or standing, as New Zealand veteran
Jerry Duffel recalls in this radio interview recorded in the 1960s.

Malnourished, diseased, traumatised and exhausted, soldiers on Gallipoli found it nearly impossible to get a good
night’s sleep. Modern medical studies have shown that prolonged sleep
deprivation can be fatal by leading to poor physical performance, lack of focus
and co-ordination, and impaired judgement.

Tragically, one New Zealand soldier
learnt this at first hand. Private Jack Dunn of the Wellington Infantry
Battalion, who had just returned from hospital after suffering from dysentery,
fell asleep on sentry duty at Quinn’s Post in July 1915. He was
court-martialled and sentenced to death for endangering his unit by falling
asleep.

General Sir Ian Hamilton, the British
officer who headed the Allied Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, overturned the
death sentence in early August, but Private Dunn was killed in the Battle of
Chunuk Bair a few days later. His story features in Te
Papa's exhibition Gallipoli: The scale of our war.